Massive Clunker

Rating: 7/10 (17 July 2013)

This film is unoriginal inside and out. This film is a whirlpool that has sucked so many ideas from its obvious precursors (Godzilla, Transformers) and related works (Hellboy, Matrix, Aliens, Starship Trooper, Iron Man, Inception, District 9, the list is endless) that one expects it to be drowned in writs.
This film has a script that is as poor as you'd come to expect. It isn't horrendous, but it often arrests the cast.
The plot problems are few but marked. Some would not escape a child.
So why can I still remember the film after the popcorn is finished?
There is enough humour to cover the dialogue shortcomings, enough detail to keep you appreciative and seen in IMAX the carnage is sumptuous. The cinematic and visual symbolism from Del Torro is a cut above the usual fare.
There are a few political ideas that creep to the surface. The film effectively excludes Europe from the plot - a definite message about the future. One solution to the problem of monster terrorism is to build a large wall and tell people they will be safe behind it.
But what makes this movie more than the sum of its parts is the focus on the robots. This film is a clean homage to so many of the ideas that came before it, but they are fully supported by the characters who are purely there to do battle with monsters in large robots. Very little screen time is given over to any concept that isn't related to FIGHTING MONSTERS IN VERY LARGE ROBOTS.
And ultimately this enlarges the film, because the action sequences are the heart and sole, not sections of a script written just for the video game. There is no message to discern beyond FIGHTING MONSTERS IN VERY LARGE ROBOTS is a thing.